Daily Archives: December 10, 2010

No need to visit the tropics to indulge your craving for coconuts – this fruit is now a part of the multi-billion dollar bottled water industry. And, like many other brands of bottled water, it even has quite a few celebrity endorsements. Touted as the natural alternative to sports drinks like Gatorade, coconut water comes from the center of young, green coconuts, and is said to be healthy, fat-free and hydrating after a long work out. At least, that’s what the bottling manufacturers would have you believe…

Before you pay $2-3 for 11 ounces of this “miracle” drink, you may want to investigate its worth. Coconut water’s biggest claim is that it’s high in potassium and low in sodium, a combination, which nutritionists say are not ideal after a strenuous workout. ZICO, one brand of coconut water, advertises with pictures of runners, hikers and mountain bikers on its website. However, as we’ve seen in the past, bottled water manufacturers are very clever when it comes to advertising. Pictures like this, along with multiple celebrity endorsements, appeal to the majority of people in America. Some brands have even “gone green” by packaging the water in the supposedly “eco-friendly” Tetrapak bottles. Smart move, seeing as how environmentalism is a hot topic these days. But is this just more greenwash? Is coconut water really better than your average sports drink in terms of health? Better yet, is it a good substitute for pure, filtered water?

Coconut water is very popular in foreign countries like Brazil. If this drink really is as good as they say it is, then we’re supporting, yet again, the bottled water industry’s scheme to take good water from people who really need it, waste massive amounts of energy to bottle it up and ship it to the U.S. so that those of us who already have access to clean water can drink it instead. Does that sound like a good idea to you?